YouTube

Google's YouTube appears to be facing some serious battles ahead. Viacom filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the site, while NBC and News Corp entered into a joint venture designed to rival it.

It's pretty sad that so many media companies are trying to copy YouTube in order to make a buck (well, millions actually). Yesterday I was searching for a Stephen Colbert clip to share with a few friends, when I remembered that Viacom own Comedy Central. A month or so ago Viacom ordered YouTube to remove all videos of their properties.

I was forced to to use Comedy Central's archaic video streaming tool. I should also add that I had to watch a commercial before the clip. The load was slow, commercial annoying and they have no searching capabilities. I had to scroll through the videos until I found what I was looking for. I won't take the trouble again.

Many of the networks have actually embraced using YouTube, like NBC and their The Office promo contest for example. That's good thinking, because the show will get huge promotion if they are available on YouTube - it's as simple as that.



The video of the Colbert Report is hilarious. I had planned to share it with some friends and post it to another blog. The clip would have become viral, thus, The Colbert Report would have increased in popularity some. This is the essence of viral marketing - it's all about word of mouth, and the ease it is to share information.

YouTube is a marketers dream tool to promote a program, movie, etc. Rather than trying to sell advertising through pre-roll on other video players, firms should stick to using what has become the industry leader for online video.

The day YouTube starts forcing it's users to watch commercials before videos is the day users will find a new video sharing tool.